John Lennon once wrote a book called A Spaniard in the Works. Its title appears to have been a puckish allusion to the British expression for an unforeseen problem: "a spanner in the works." As it turned out when I attempted to use this spread, my memory was faulty. Not all of the Thoth Minor … Continue reading The Proverbial “Spaniard:” An I Ching/Tarot Reading Attempt
Tarot Techniques
An I Ching/Tarot Problem-Solving Spread
This is my first attempt at fashioning a practical spread from a combination of the I Ching and the tarot. The decks I intend to be used are Anthony Clark's I Ching Pack, which has direct correspondences to the hexagrams; the Thoth deck with its association to the hexagrams through Aleister Crowley's commentary in The … Continue reading An I Ching/Tarot Problem-Solving Spread
A New Chapter: I Ching and Tarot
Over the years, as I've worked my way several times through Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth, I've pondered his references to I Ching hexagrams in his commentary on the cards of the Minor Arcana but I've never done anything practical with that information. I also own the Thoth-based Haindl tarot deck, which has the hexagrams … Continue reading A New Chapter: I Ching and Tarot
Weather or Not: An Extended Forecast
To begin trending my tarot forecasting results, I performed this spread for the first seven days of September for the region of eastern New England where I live. The readings fell within the expected range for this time of year (that is, mostly hot with no unseasonable cooling anticipated and little if any rain). Here … Continue reading Weather or Not: An Extended Forecast
Weather or Not: An Event-Planning Spread
This spread serves two purposes: its more obvious aim is to forecast the likely weather conditions for a planned outdoor event or travel situation. Its more abstract objective is to serve as a data-collection tool for determining how effective prediction is with the cards. One of the chief weaknesses in cartomantic prognostication is that so … Continue reading Weather or Not: An Event-Planning Spread
A “Shadow Play” Example Reading
I know an artist who is starting an on-line business, and I wanted to examine what her prospects are for success with my new "Shadow Play" spread. I used M.M Meleen's Thoth-based Tabula Mundi Colores Arcus deck, with reversals. All images © 2015 M,M. Meleen At first glance, the "outwardly explicit" cards in the top … Continue reading A “Shadow Play” Example Reading
The “Shadow-Play” Motivational Awareness Spread
As a spin-off of my "House System for Tarot" post, I created a spread that draws the house cards from the bottom of the deck as shadow-card companions to the more outwardly explicit cards pulled from the top of the deck. These cards will show underlying motives or causes that affect the outer aspects of … Continue reading The “Shadow-Play” Motivational Awareness Spread
“Mirror of the Soul” Karmic Message Spread
The Pythagoreans held that Number is sacred and embodies the root of all Existence; the measure of anything whatsoever can be taken in its ten formative principals, which ascend from an embryonic origin in the Monad or Point (1) to mature perfection in the Decad (10). (Note that this isn't the mathematical perception of Pythagoreanism … Continue reading “Mirror of the Soul” Karmic Message Spread
A “House” System for Tarot
Some time ago I created a numerical table that lays out all 78 tarot cards in an array that begins with the 22 trump cards and then follows through with the 56 minor cards, Ace through King and Wands through Pentacles. I devised this table as a way to find the "mid-point" between cards for … Continue reading A “House” System for Tarot
An Alternate Approach to On-line Reading
As I've said many times before, I'm suspicious of any card-reading method that doesn't involve a querent physically handling the deck. Consequently, I shy away from on-line reading except under very limited circumstances. One of my "work-arounds" is to request that remote clients shuffle and draw from their own deck of cards, then tell me … Continue reading An Alternate Approach to On-line Reading
Parsifal's Wheel Tarot & Astrology 